I have never agreed with anything that has ever come out of Richard Peddie's mouth over the past six years in his role as president of MLSE, nor have I ever unequivocally trusted it. But this week at the NHL board of governors meetings, Peddie was asked about Brian Burke for the bud-zillionth time.
He responded with an analogy about the trivia game The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Dick didn't exactly spit it out the way he had hoped (remind you of anything, JFJ?), but it's a consideration I have mused quietly about in recent weeks, so here's what he was getting at:
There was a popular trivia game released at the peak of Kevin Bacon's mediocre acting career titled The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. It links everyone and everything in Hollywood to the moderately successful film star in no more than six related steps. Not bad for a dude whose biggest leading role was 25 years ago in a movie called Footloose, where many of his scenes were played by a body double.
Perhaps the instruction manual from that game should be light reading for anyone who believes that everybody hired by the Maple Leaf organization between now and next July must surely point toward the ultimate hiring of Brian Burke as Toronto's next general manager.
Burke and Ron Wilson knew each other in college? You don't say!? I went to the same high school as Chris Benoit. Does that mean that Mrs. Dude should fear for her life? No. Does it mean that I'm on the juice? No. (But that doesn't mean Tiger isn't, though that's a blog for another day.)
The reality is that if Kevin Bacon was half as prominent in Hollywood circles as Burkie is within the National Hockey League, you may very well be able to link both of them to each other.
Wait! How about Burkie for GM, and Kevin Bacon as the ASSISTANT GM in Toronto? I think Burkie's wife might have worked in a commercial with him once. No wait!! I used to work with Burkie's wife at a TV station in Vancouver. Move over Bacon, I could be Burke's assistant GM!! Burkie and The Dude!!! It all makes so much sense. Sorry K-Lowe. I need to do what's right for me and my family.
Then again, maybe I'll just apply to be Richard Peddie's interpreter.